Endings
by calma-llama
Summary: Odd realizes that not all endings are happy.


Odd didn't see it coming. Not by a long shot.

His friends joked about how he had practically survived everything life could throw at him. Things like escaping a crumbling building unharmed, surviving the wrath of angry teenage girls when they found out he was cheating on them and even getting a few volts passed through him, courtesy of Xana's polymorphic specters. They were almost convinced that he would die doing something stupid. Something like falling out of a tree or getting hit by a moped or bleeding out from a paper cut...If that were possible, of course. He assumed they were right.

Catching a cold hadn't been something that occurred to him.

It started out with a simple cough. He'd been participating in another one of Jim's training sessions with the other Lyoko Warriors, the sky dark and the ground trembling with the thunder. It was a warning before it started to pour. Jim called it a day, but Odd decided to stick around a little longer. He was tired of people calling him skinny and underweight. It was about time he gained some more pounds in muscle. He pushed himself, running some laps around the campus and attempting some pull ups before heading back to the dorms, his hoodie soaked and blonde hair matted to his head. He was freezing and absolutely exhausted. So, it didn't exactly surprise him when he noticed symptoms of a cold coming along later that week.

The sickness didn't go away. It steadily got worse, leaving him shaking with coughs thrashing his body as he tried to serve detention for falling asleep yet again in class. He got sent to the infirmary, worried glances from his friends following him. He couldn't pay them much attention though. He was barely able to focus on shuffling in a straight line in his fever induced haze. Not to mention trying to navigate the school halls. Jeremie later found him passed out in the bathroom. Del Mas didn't hesitate even a second when he confined Odd to his dorm with the care of a nurse.

He'd gotten visits from his friends who checked up on him constantly, especially Ulrich. The poor brunette had been relocated to Jeremie's room, the principal too afraid of Odd's cold spreading. He received a call from his parents, asking to come over. He declined of course, explaining how he didn't want them getting sick. In truth, Odd just didn't want them seeing their baby boy covered in his own vomit and stinking like he hadn't showered for days. He told them that he was fine and there was really nothing to worry about.

He knew better though. He wasn't fine.

The coughing fits became longer and more violent, usually ending with him gasping for air, occasionally with a hand grasping his sheets specked with his own blood. It felt strange, calling an ambulance for himself and all, but the awkward feeling didn't last long when he collapsed to the floor, blacking out halfway through the call.

When he woke up, he was in a hospital bed, dressed in a green gown with a tube down his throat. It felt as if everything was just _too _hot or _too _cold. Everything just hurt _so much_. He felt warmth against his hand and it was the only actually pleasant sensation he could comprehend at the moment. It was his friends, Yumi's hand intertwined with his. She had always been like a sister to him. All of them stood there beside him, eyes red and their cheeks flushed from no doubt crying while he was out.

He wanted to smile, to reassure them that he was okay. He wanted to tell them that he was going to make it like all those other times before. He wanted them to stop crying because he knew that he would start to cry too. But, he couldn't speak or move for that matter. The feeling of the tube stuffed down his throat, helping him cling to life as it filled his lungs with air before they deflated again was a rather unpleasant sensation. His heart rate shot up, the beeping monitor screeching and blaring until everything began to blur together. His eyes searched the room, that wild look in them. He was scared. He was scared that once his eyes closed, it would all be over. He didn't want to leave his friends, his family, his entire life behind. But no matter how hard he tried, he spiraled into darkness one last time. The last thing he could remember was Aelita bursting into tears, Jeremie taking her into his arms and Ulrich yelling for someone to help and Yumi's hand tightening around his.

He didn't see it coming. He didn't think that the last thing he would see was the white ceiling of a hospital room, himself in a gown as his closest friends begged him to stay awake a little longer before they were pushed aside by doctors. He never would've thought this is how his story ended. He always thought it might end with a _thud _from hitting the ground or a _snap _from breaking something. He would've even settled for the gentle silence of dying in his sleep at a ripe old age.

"S-Sorry."

He never would have thought he'd greet death with a whimper.

It wasn't the ending he wanted.


End file.
